[Grovenet] Capital punishment? I don't need no stinkin' capital punishment . . . .

Tue Apr 29 21:40:41 PDT 2008

Thanks for the info on the judge's race Bob. I was wondering what was  
going on there.

Katie

On Apr 29, 2008, at 4:10 PM, Bob Browning wrote:

> Takes a gutsy DA to admit his predecessors may have been wrong. The  
> public's desire for punishment is now almost 100% retribution  
> rather than rehibilitation. A perfect example of that is the  
> current sitting Judge Rogers / Deputy DA Erwin race for a judicial  
> position in Washington County. Judge Rogers made a ruling not liked  
> by the DA so he fronted one of his deputies as a challenger to help  
> keep the rest of the judges in line. In the recent Oregon State Bar  
> Poll, Judge Rogers was recommended by the attorneys of Washington  
> County by 222 to 45 for Mr. Erwin. Judge Rogers has also received  
> near unanimous endorsement by the Judges of Washington County.  
> However, Mr. Erwin is supported almost unanimously by the local  
> police unions and chiefs and sheriffs. Actually, that really scares  
> me, since I am not sure I want a judge to be beholding to the very  
> agencies who are are empowered to put you away for a very long time!!
>
> That's why I support Judge Rogers in this race and believe all of  
> you should do likewise.
>
> bob "rule of law and not of men" browning
>
> PS: There are many who believe that McVeigh's desire to be executed  
> was more to become a martyr and not because of any especially  
> underlying guilt. And, once dead, no additional information about  
> who may have acted with him or who incited him to act will ever be  
> known!!  b
>
> Katie Allnutt wrote:
>>
>> As a general rule I think that capital punishment is wrong 99.99999%
>> of the time but I would leave the door open in cases where the guilt
>> is clear, acknowledged by the criminal, and the crime was
>> particularly heinous with consideration given if the defendant/
>> criminal requests it as an alternative to life in prison. Timothy
>> McVeigh comes to mind. But I would agree with you absolutely if the
>> defendant claims they did not commit the crime.  This case was a
>> tragedy that happens too frequently when, as the current DA said,
>> convictions were the goal as opposed to justice.
>>
>> 27 years is a long time to spend in jail for a crime you did not
>> commit, especially when the prosecutor had evidence that you did not
>> commit it.
>>
>> Hats off to the Innocence Project and who ever started the
>> 'conviction integrity unit' in the DA's office.
>>
>> Katie
>>
>>
>> On Apr 29, 2008, at 2:54 PM, Bob Browning wrote:
>>
>>
>>> This is why I don't believe in capital punishment, what ever the
>>> Supreme Court may say ! ! ! !
>>>
>>> Here, the guy can go free. But, with capital punishment nobody goes
>>> home free!
>>>
>>> bob "hang 'em high??" browning
>>>
>>>
>>>> <logo_printerfriendly.jpg>
>>>> DNA evidence frees man imprisoned 27 years in Dallas County
>>>>
>>>> 03:35 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 29, 2008
>>>>
>>>> By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
>>>>
>>>> James Lee Woodard was released Tuesday morning by state District
>>>> Judge Mark Stoltz and became the 17th man exonerated by DNA in
>>>> Dallas County, which has more DNA exonerations than any other
>>>> county in the nation.
>>>> Mr. Woodard, 55, was convicted of murder in the strangulation of
>>>> his 21-year-old girlfriend, Beverly Ann Jones, who was also raped.
>>>>
>>>> "I thank God for letting me live through the experience," said Mr.
>>>> Woodard.
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Woodard said he had no immediate plans except to "breathe
>>>> fresh, free air" and perhaps eat a hamburger. He has little
>>>> family, and his mother died while he was in prison.
>>>>
>>>> District Attorney Craig Watkins and Judge Mark Stoltz, who
>>>> released Mr. Woodard, apologized to him for his wrongful  
>>>> conviction.
>>>>
>>>> "Unfortunately, you're not getting justice today," Judge Stoltz
>>>> said. "You're getting the end of injustice."
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Woodard could have been paroled, but he refused to admit to a
>>>> crime he did not commit. Judge Stoltz said that "spoke volumes"
>>>> about Mr. Woodard's character because he considered the truth to
>>>> be more important than his freedom.
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Woodard spent more time behind bars than anyone in the country
>>>> cleared by DNA evidence, the Dallas County district attorney's
>>>> office and the Innocence Project of Texas said.
>>>>
>>>> But information that Ms. Jones was with three men – including two
>>>> later convicted of unrelated sexual assaults – around the time of
>>>> her death was not disclosed to the defense nor was it thoroughly
>>>> investigated, said prosecutor Mike Ware, who oversees the Dallas
>>>> County district attorney's office conviction integrity unit.
>>>>
>>>> Evidence that could benefit a defendant is required by law to be
>>>> turned over to a defendant, though there is no criminal punishment
>>>> for not doing so.
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Ware said Mr. Woodard received a "fundamentally unfair" trial.
>>>> He said he believes the evidence is something that prosecutors at
>>>> the time should have investigated, "or at least turn it over so
>>>> the defense could investigate."
>>>>
>>>> Before the district attorney's office agreed that the DNA that
>>>> exonerated Mr. Woodard of the rape also exonerated him of the
>>>> murder – in itself an unusual step – a forensic pathologist
>>>> examined the file and concluded that Ms. Jones was killed about
>>>> the same time she was raped.
>>>>
>>>> Her body was found New Year's Eve 1980 near the Trinity River in a
>>>> wooded area near South Loop 12. The night Ms. Jones was killed,
>>>> she was with Theodore Blaylock, who was convicted of an aggravated
>>>> rape committed three weeks after Ms. Jones' death, according to
>>>> Mr. Ware and testimony from a 1981 post-conviction hearing.
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Blaylock testified at the hearing that he was drinking with
>>>> Ms. Jones, Edward Mosley and Eddie Woodard, who is not related to
>>>> James Lee Woodard, one morning in late December 1980.
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Blaylock said he and Mr. Mosley went with Ms. Jones to a South
>>>> Dallas convenience store where Ms. Jones left and got in another
>>>> car with three other men. Mr. Blaylock could not provide
>>>> descriptions.
>>>>
>>>> In 1982, Mr. Blaylock was shot and killed when he tried to rape
>>>> another woman in her car. She pulled a gun from under the seat and
>>>> shot him several times, Mr. Ware said.
>>>>
>>>> Eddie Woodard is now a registered sex offender involved in a
>>>> brutal sexual assault, who the district attorney's office said has
>>>> absconded from probation. Mr. Mosley's whereabouts were unclear
>>>> late Monday.
>>>>
>>>> Prosecutors want to compare DNA from the men to the genetic
>>>> evidence from the rape to find the true culprit.
>>>>
>>>> James Lee Woodard was seeking a new trial at the 1981 hearing,
>>>> alleging that prosecutors did not fully disclose information about
>>>> Ms. Jones' whereabouts the night she was killed. The judge, John
>>>> Ovard, who was also the trial judge, denied the new trial and
>>>> formally sentenced him.
>>>>
>>>> The judge and the district attorney's office could have righted
>>>> Mr. Woodard's wrongful conviction in 1981, just months later, said
>>>> Natalie Roetzel, executive director of the Innocence Project of
>>>> Texas.
>>>>
>>>> "It's one of the most disturbing things about this case," she
>>>> said. "Essentially, that was ignored because the investigators had
>>>> the suspect they wanted."
>>>>
>>>> Also, a prosecution witness changed his testimony since the
>>>> Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit independent legal clinic,
>>>> began investigating Mr. Woodard's conviction. Ms. Jones'
>>>> stepfather testified that on the night she was killed, Mr. Woodard
>>>> came to the apartment in the middle of the night looking for her.
>>>>
>>>> Oscar Edwards now says he believes Mr. Woodard was not the person
>>>> who came to his door and did not kill his daughter, Mr. Ware said.
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Woodard, who has a record for nonviolent crimes, is the second
>>>> man cleared by DNA during a review of 350 defendants' requests for
>>>> DNA tests that were denied under previous District Attorney Bill
>>>> Hill.
>>>>
>>>> Like many in Dallas County exonerated by DNA, Mr. Woodard was
>>>> convicted during the era of District Attorney Henry Wade. Current
>>>> District Attorney Craig Watkins has repeatedly said he believes
>>>> that during this time, prosecutors were more focused on
>>>> convictions than justice.
>>>>
>>>> In several handwritten letters, Mr. Woodard begged Mr. Wade to
>>>> reinvestigate his case and always maintained his innocence. He
>>>> said that his letters were always answered by a prosecutor saying
>>>> nothing could be done because a jury convicted him.
>>>>
>>>> In a March 1985 letter, Mr. Woodard wrote to Mr. Wade: "If you
>>>> found out for yourself that I was innocent, would you let me go?"
>>>>
>>>>
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